Friday marks the end of the work week for most people. Now that you will have more time, perhaps you’ll use the weekend to enter our print giveaway of Michael Page’s (interviewed) print – Light Waters. The edition, made available through the generosity of Virtu Art Gallery, is limited to 25, hand embellished, and sized at 18 1/2″ x 14 3/4″. All you have to do is leave a comment as to what the two words “Élan Vital” means to you which is also the title of his Page’s show opening on April 14th at the Shooting Gallery in SF.

Elan Vital is the drive to leave an impact on the universe, to see one’s own efforts reflected back by the world around them. It takes countless forms, from the artists’ desire to stand before their own creation to a parent’s simple joy of seeing their own personality traits emerge in their children. It is present not only in acts of creation but in destruction as well- the farmer feels it when surveying a newly cleared field, and the bomber pilot experiences it when he looks behind him at the damage he’s inflicted on a target.

Raymond Klecker

To me Elan Vital means a vital passion. Something that is inside of you that is responsible for your neverending motivation to achieve your dreams.

http://www.facebook.com/prototypeimagery Abasi Clark

Elan Vital is the constant growth of art to challenge our imaginations to expand as the art expands.

Michael Page has a unique way of hypnotizing you into each of his pieces, absolutely love his work.

http://www.facebook.com/JesperSkovsted Jesper Besper

I have no idea what Élan Vital means TO ME, but i really like the paintings!

http://twitter.com/olikendall oliver kendall

Great work as always. Elan Vital encompasses the ever changing nature of beings and the relationship to the world and ‘other world’ around us.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1790204471 Natalia BC

to capture the essence of the force of movement in it’s spontaneous suspention as it decays. something elevated, rich and subtle that drives all beings.

Benedikt Maurer

Elan Vital

this one thing, when you step out on the Hermannstraße in Berlin, early afternoon, sun is shining and you´re on your way to the market where you´ll buy a kilo of strawberries for little change, people a sitting in the shadow or near by the Maybachufer to cool down a bit, but you are´t because you need the sun and the heat and you know where to find it and to find more than that because you already hear the beat and the laughter after entering the Hasenheide park where you gonna meet people you know or don´t know which isn´t important because you´re all here because of the same reason which is to dance and to be and to drink and you feel this one thing which makes you want to be alive and to stay alive because you recognize that you´re young and beautiful and you need to fulfill this time with everything you can reach and the beat is a carrier for your thoughts and there are strawberries in your mouth.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000457087134 Sarah Kuhr

Elan Vital is an under-appreciated force that binds the world within itself.

http://www.facebook.com/murray.e.breen Murray Elliot Breen

Love All Life!

shana1369

Elan Vital: Life is not driven soley by biology and science, there is
something inside all of us that drives us creatively and often forms
common bonds. That pleasure we all feel when spring first hits us in the
face that makes the artists in us need to create something essential
and meaningful.

http://twitter.com/DragonMgmt Dragon Management

“Vital spirit,” right?

Mike Jones

Élan Vital is the intangible but unmistakable spirit that drives all life. Not only drives us to live, evolve and to spread life but is the force that makes us live to be our best. Our love, creativeness, expressions are all driven by this force that we cannot see yet none of us can ignore or deny is there; the spark of fire in our souls that compels some to create, to sing, to love, to BE. Élan Vital is the magical presence we feel when surrounded by nature. It drives all life to not only survive but to excel, spread our seed and the beauty that connects all life together.

eddiesea

constant elevation spiritually and mentally

joshd rilling

elan vital refers to the Kant sublime, either the unhinging or union of our material form of existence from our abstract-value form, or at least the acknowledgment of this dual human nature. the print speaks for itself

http://profiles.google.com/braddock.spear Braddock Spear

conscious evolution

shibby3030

life giving

http://www.facebook.com/damien.higdon Damien Higdon

Elan Vital – I know it as Akasha… it is the aether, it is the immaterial fifth
element that binds together, and drives all matter. It is the causal,
that which brings motion to the static. Elan vital is the flow within a stream, the gust behind the wind, the grounding power of the earth beneath your feet, the ignition of all flames burning brightly in the sky…. and it is the anima breathing life into all living things. It is the intangible mother force that gives birth to gravitation, magnetism, inertia, and centrifugalism… making possible all manner of action and reaction.

juggernut3

Hi Damien, you are the winner chosen by Michael Page. We will contact you for your address soon.

disqurbed

Breathing

http://twitter.com/Qcintero Lorenzo

It’s your soul. The escence of our life.

Wolfster

It exemplifies the human condition and our never ending questioning and answering of existence and meaning.

http://profile.yahoo.com/3GYE4VFCEARZ6VCB7E6PNGJ7AU Wildres

“Élan Vital”?….. To me, Élan Vital is my creative process. It starts with an idea that elaborates it’s self, as I gently attempt nudge it into something tangeable. I hold the mental concept, but not so tightly that it suffocates with the technical, as I attempt to translate it into something visual. It has to capture it’s self as I act as the vehicle. The whole process has to happen naturally, otherwise the idea drifts away, taking motivation from it. I can liken it with catching a wave of energy that has to happen anyway, weather I decide to ride it or not. Unike a wave made of water, this wave is everywhere.

LukeWhitten

It can be seen, but not by way of the eyes.

The song that sings the many forms of time and space into existence, can be heard, but not by way of the ears.

http://twitter.com/peperuka peperuka

I am French so “Élan Vital” speaks to me
“Élan vital” is the small impulse sometimes needed to change things in our life…
Thanks for the giveaway, btw looks like the elephant from Andaman island !

when i’m not in my best spirits i feel the need to draw/ paint.. my natural instinct leads me to do it and i dont even realize that its a vital coping method.thats what Élan Vital means to me.

http://profile.yahoo.com/R6NOQZKV2MO46JO2DCTEUQG234 R

“Élan Vital means to me to not let anything keep you down.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Thomas-Edward/510437075 Thomas Edward

To me… Life actions, thoughts, emotions and people are “élan vital”. It is a hypothetical force that drives us humans to change and evolve. Everything and anything that you what can be élan vital, you just have to feel and believe it!

juggernut3

Thank you all for playing. The winner as chosen by Michael Page is Damien Higdon.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Brian-Astle/1159667780 Brian Astle

“Élan Vital” is art. It is the very essence why we create. It is the bringing together of two or more things that never before existed together, and letting them come to life. By so doing we inject a free flowing creative life force into the work, and in turn that force is reciprocated on us. This never ending cycle of creation and inspiration is what I believe to be the ultimate driving force to existence. And if you don’t understand what I just said, then you may understand, its why we make and think things that are dope.